bob nolan
This is the second song I picked up when my parents finally forgot about me playing my maternal grandfather's violin, and gave me a guitar. My mother demanded me to fix that song: she'd once heard it with her favorite singer Harry Belafonte. Hmmm, she must have been dreaming; Belafonte has never recorded this song. But hundreds have done that, and I first got it with the LP "Twilight on the Trail"(Roulette 1959) by Jimmie Rodgers - the pop singer, not the country legend.
Robert Clarence Nobles(1908–1980) wrote this as a poem when he was a high school student in Tucson, Arizona. He later took the artist name Bob Nolan, and became a founding member of "Sons of the Pioneers", which recorded all his songs as well as other common western standards. The trademark of this group was vocal harmonies and exciting arrangements. Note that Nolan was not a "songwriter", he was a "composer"!
Legacy: the song was first recorded on June 13th 1940 by Bob Atcher, then Sons of the Pioneers in April 1941. Many artists have "improved" Nolan's finishing line of the refrain to make a "better" rhyme ("you and meeee"), which is a disrespect. AND old Dan is NOT a flippin' horse nor mule. He's a donkey. According to Nolan himself: a "burr"!
all day I face the barren waste
without the taste of water : cool water
old Dan and I with throats burned dry
and souls that cry for water : cool clear water
the nights are cool and I'm a fool
each star's a pool of water : cool water
but with the dawn I'll wake and yawn
and carry on to water : cool clear water
the shadows sway and seem to say
tonight we pray for water: cool water
and way up there He'll hear our prayer
and show us where there's water : cool clear water
Dan's feet are sore : he's yearning for
just one thing more than water : cool water
like me I guess he'd like to rest
where there's no quest for water : cool clear water
keep a-movin' Dan • don't ya listen to him Dan
he's a devil of a man and he spreads the burning sand with water
Dan can you see that big green tree?
where the water's running free
and it's waiting there for me and you ...
For the following CHORD section, fullscreen/horizontal mobile is recommended.
Chords in brackets may be omitted.
A E all day I face the barren waste A E E7 A ...A7 without the taste of water cool water D E old Dan and I with throats burned dry A D A E E7 A and souls that cry for water cool clear water A E keep a-movin' Dan don't ya listen to him Dan A E A ...A7 he's a devil of a man and he spreads the burning sand with water D A Dan can you see that big green tree? D where the water's running free E A and it's waiting there for me and you
